By Andrew McCathie, dpa
Berlin (dpa) – Volkswagen announced on Friday the biggest loss in the embattled carmaker’s history, ending a black day for the German car industry as the VW exhaust emissions scandal widened.
VW reported on Friday a 1.58-billion-euro (1.78-billion-dollar) net loss for 2015, after being forced to more than double its provisions to about 16.2 billion euros to help meet the costs of emissions scandal that has engulfed the group. VW posted a 10.85-billion-euro profit in 2014.
The announcement of VW’s first loss in more than 20 years in 2015 followed the news that Daimler – the manufacturer of luxury Mercedes-Benz cars – had set up an internal investigation into its US exhaust emissions-testing processes following a requests from the US Justice Department.
Major German carmakers are also to recall about 630,000 vehicles to correct software measuring vehicle emissions, government officials said on Friday.
The manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Opel, VW and Porsche, are to recall the vehicles following technical changes to standards.
The changes follow tests ordered by German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt in the wake of the VW emissions scandal after the carmaker admitted in September to cheating on diesel exhaust tests around the world.
The results of the investigations launched by Dobrindt have been monitored by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) over a long period of time.
«The report of the Federal Motor Transport Authority for emissions of diesel cars helps to create clarity and transparency,» said Matthias Wissmann, who heads up the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA).
But environmental groups warned that the transport authorities’ tests fell short of what was needed to establish whether carmakers were seeking to evade the emissions tests.
«This is just the tip of iceberg,» car and environmental analyst Axel Friedrich told dpa. «There is still quite a lot that is below the water level.»
Daimler shares were down almost 7 per cent following news of the company’s probe and the release of the group’s first-quarter results, which showed profit slumping by 32 per cent in the first three months of the year.
A group of US car owners have launched class actions against Daimler, claiming that emissions from the Stuttgart-based carmaker’s vehicles were above the legal limit.
Daimler has firmly rebuffed the claims. «We categorically reject these allegations,» Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche told the group’s annual shareholders’ meeting earlier this month.
The Daimler announcement of the probe came just one day after VW said it had hammered out a compromise with the US authorities on a settlement to compensate US owners of diesel cars that were equipped with the software designed to manipulate US emissions tests.
German carmakers are not the only ones who find themselves in the spotlight of the authorities.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp also admitted this week that it had it had overstated the fuel efficiency of about 625,000 cars, while France’s PSA Group – the manufacturer of Peugeot and Citroen cars – said its offices in France had been searched by government fraud investigators.
Meeting at VW’s sprawling headquarters in the northern German city of Wolfsburg, the company’s board also decided to slash the group’s dividend payment from a record 4.86 euros in 2014 to a token 0.17 cents for last year.
The board said that an internal investigation into the scandal, conducted by US law firm Jones Day, would not be completed by the end of the year.
The VW board also reached a compromise in a battle over bonuses for top managers with executives agreeing to an initial 30-per-cent cut in the payments.
